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A DISCOURSE 



(•Tteartfr and §tti% 



JOHN BROWN 



Delivered in Martinsburgh, N. Y. Dec. 12, 1850. 



IBY S. H. TAFT, 
Pastor of the Church of Martinsburgh. 



All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even 
so to them : for this is the law and the prophets." 



SECOND EDITION.-- PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 
With an Introduction by the Reverend J. H Moribon. D D. 



DES MOINES: 

STEAM PRINTING HOUSE OF CARTER, HU8SEY AND CURL. 
1872. 



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P REFATOR T. 



My " Discourse on the Character and Death of John Brown " was 
published immediately after its delivery, in compliance with the 
wishes of a very few radical abolitionists. It was favorably noticed 
by the New York Independent and some other public journals, by rea- 
son of which I received numerous orders for it from all parts of the 
Northern States, which soon exhausted the edition. In the summer 
of 1860 I also received letters from Hon. Gerrit Smith, Rev. Dr. 
Cheever, and other leading abolitionists, expressing hearty approval 
of the discourse, after which it slumbered for six years almost as 
quietly as " John Brown's body — in the grave." But since the close of 
the war I have received numerous letters asking for copies of it, for 
which reason I have had published this second edition. 

I have taken the liberty of publishing herewith one of the letters 

above referred to, as also an introduction by my revered friend Dr. 

J. H. Morison, of Boston. 

S. H. Taft. 

Springvale, Iowa, March 21s<, 1872. 



METROPOLITAN NATIONAL BANK, 

New York, February 12th, 1872. 

Rev. S. II. Taft : 

My Dear Sir: I send herewith the John Brown sermon. Accept 
our thanks for the privilege of seeing what you said in those troub- 
lous times, of the scenes of deep interest then transpiring. 

A friend seeing it on my desk wished very much to have it to send 
abroad, to a friend of Lord Byron. I told him it was your only copy. 
He said his friend Mr. J. E. T., of England, had a portrait of John 
Brown, and was a great admirer of his, for which reason he wished 
to send him the sermon — which my friend has read and likes very 
mvich. 

He has given me a check for $100 (which I enclose), and in return 
wishes a copy of the sermon, if it can be obtained. 

Yours truly, 

J. E. Williams. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Milton, Mass., March 18th, 1872. 
Rev. S. H. Taft : 

My Dear Sir : I am glad that you are to have a new edition of your 
John Brown sermon published. I can easily understand the feelings 
of the New York gentleman who sent you a hundred dollars for the last 
copy you had of the old edition. It seems to me, considering the time 
and circumstances under which it was delivered, a remarkable produc- 
tion — one of the mysterious prophetic utterances made under the 
impulse of a Higher Spirit than man's, which preceded the downfall of 
slavery. The way in which John Brown's name and acts, apparently 
so insignificant in themselves, connected themselves with the uprising 
of a great nation against the terrible wrong, his soul " marching on " 
the animating spirit in more than a million armed men, would be 
thought fabulous and incredible, if such an event had been narrated as 
belonging to the early history of Palestine and Rome. 

What you say of Governor Wise reminds me of an incident related 
by a rebel officer during the war. Governor Wise's son was killed and 
his body prepared for burial. The father bent over the body with a 
look and with words of the deepest anguish and then fell senseless to 
the ground. The officer added, that at that moment he could not but 
think of the time when he had seen the Governor coldly repel the 
request of his daughter who kneeled before her father and begged him 
to spare the life of John Brown. So the ways of God and of good men 
vindicate themselves sooner or later, and the foolishness of the faithful 
and simple ones is found to be wiser than the wisdom of the prudent. 
So right prevails over wrong. Love is mightier than hatred. One 
man upon the gallows, with his great loving heart, (madman though he 
seems to thousands,) is stronger than all that can be arrayed against 
him. John Brown made a mistake, I think, in taking into his own 
private hands the responsibility of destroying life. His power when 
lie had been disarmed, imprisoned and condemned was greater than it 
had ever been before, and ten thousand times greater when he had 
been made a martyr in the cause of liberty. 

I thank you for doing something to refresh our memories by bring- 
ing before us again so vividly the image of one whose name lias been 
identified with the greatest movement of our age. 
Very truly yours, 

John H. Morison. 



JOHN BROWN. 



My text this afternoon, my hearers, is, " John Brown." You will 
find it recorded in all the newspapers of the land ; and it will yet be 
inscribed in bold characters on the record of the World's History ! 

Ten days ago, just before the sun had reached the meridian, in the 
village of Charlestown,in the State of Virginia, John Brown — an aged 
man, with hair and beard as white as the snows which robe our North- 
ern hills — was ignominiously hung by the neck, between the heavens 
and the earth, until he was dead. 

As all civilized nations agree that the death penalty, if inflicted at 
all, can properly be inflicted only upon the most guilty of men, in 
punishment for the highest of crimes, the question suggests itself to 
every candid mind : " Who is John Brown, and what are the crimes 
for which he has been executed?" v>"'. 

With regard to the first question, I remark, John Brown was born in 
Connecticut, in the year A B O0; / He early emigrated to Massachusetts, 
and thence to this State, where he lived until slavery ("seconded by 
Douglas and other Northern men, who were willing to sell their 
country's freedom for a mess of political pottage,) put forth its ruth- 
less hand to plant the Upas of Slavery on the virgin soil of Kansas, 
when he emigrated there and confronted the minions of despotism on 
their own chosen battle-ground. 

Suffering severe losses in Kansas by the civil war which raged there, 
he returned to this State with his family. Leaving them at North 
Elba, Essex county, he went to Maryland and entered upon his prepa- 
ration for taking Harper's fenw, of which attack, my hearers, you all 
know, but of the full result of which little can be known at the present 
time. 

John Brown was the grandson of a revolutionary soldier, and the 
sixth from Peter Brown, one of the Pilgrim fathers, who landed at 
Plymouth in the year 1620. So you observe, my hearers, that royal 
blood coursed in his veins, as we count royalty. 

To answer with any degree of completeness the second question, 
viz.: what has he done for which he has been put to death? would 
require much time. I shall be able therefore, on the present occasion, 
to reply but liriefly. As his acts at Harper's Ferry were but a continu- 
ation of a series of like acts, I shall have to go back a few years and 
speak of his Kansas work. For be it known, my hearers, that John 



6 Character and Death of 

Brown was not executed for his tragic conquest of Harper's Ferry ; he 
was taken prisoner, tried and condemned, for this ; but he was executed 
for having driven the myrmidons of slavery from Kansas. 

His Spartan bravery, Cromwellian integrity, and Puritanic sim- 
plicity and faith, won for him the admiration even of his bitterest foes, 
and Slavery has not yet so wholly eaten out the better impulses of 
humanity in the Southern heart, but that many desired that the noble 
old man should have been pardoned, and Governor Wise and the Leg- 
islature of Virginia would gladly have sought to cover the record of 
their cowardice and shame, with the magnanimity which a pardon 
would have displayed, if only the daring deeds of Harper's Ferry had 
been present before their minds. But tliey remembered, the whole 
slave oligarchy remembered, that to John Brown, more than any 
other man, the slave power owed its signal defeat in Kansas. Such a 
crime could know no foi'giveness, neither in the gubernatorial mansion 
nor in the Legislative Halls of Virginia. 

When the marauding hordes led on by Atchison, Stringfellow and 
others were pouring into Kansas to overthrow the three great bul- 
warks of liberty — freedom of speech, freedom of the press and the 
ballot-box — Mr. Brown gathered around him a band of faithful, 
upright men (for he would never allow a profane or unprincipled man 
in his camp), and went forth to defend the right. So successfully did 
he contend with the foe, that his name became at once a tower of 
strength to the Free - State party, while it inspired corresponding ter- 
ror in the hearts of the slaveholder and his allies. 

His defense of Lawrence against a large force of Missourians, who 
marched upon it soon after the Shannon treaty, was the turning point 
in the contest between slavery and freedom in that Territory. Mr. 
Brown continued his labors until the ballot - box was restored, and the 
lip and press made free. He then crossed the borders into Missouri, 
and, Moses - like, led forth some of God's poor and oppressed children 
from the land of bondage, and conducted them safely to a land of 
freedom. The result of this has been to drive slavery almost wholly 
out of the Western and Northern portions of the State. 

A Southern writer lately said that the decrease of slavery in Mis- 
souri is so rapid that " Whole counties would soon be without a single 
bondman." The act for which he was sentenced to suffer death upon 
the scaffold is known to you, my hearers. He made a descent upon 
Harper's Ferry, with a force of twenty -two men (himself included), 
took possession of the United States Arsenal, made prisoners of the 
first citizens of the place, as a means of delivering from a life - long 
imprisonment the victims of Southern slavery, his object in taking 
prisoners being to exchange them for slaves, which were by this means 
to be set free. 

Looking upon slavery as a system of outlawry, and as such having no 
rights which God recognizes, or man "is bound to respect," he 
espoused the cause of the weak and outraged party, and laid his life 



John Brown. 7 

and the life of his sons upon the altar of freedom. His own emphatic 
language, when asked what he sought to do, was, " I claim to be here 
in carrying out a measure I believe to be perfectly justifiable ; not to 
act the part of an incendiary or ruffian, but to aid those suffering great 
wrong." 

But can we confide in Mr. Brown's testimony? Certainly, for 
Governor Wise himself said he would believe him under any circum- 
stances. 

For such deeds as I have enumerated, and for such only, has John 
Brown been put to death. 

I am aware that in order to detract from his influence, some have 
denounced him as a madman ; but where is the evidence ? Is it found 
in the manner in which he defended the interests of freedom in Kan- 
sas ? No other man displayed equal wisdom and ability in that dark 
day of her history. 

Is the evidence of his madness found in the success which attended 
his attack on Harper's Ferry? With twenty -one men he captured a 
United States Arsenal, took over forty prisoners, and held possession 
of a town of over two thousand inhabitants, until overpowered by the 
united forces which the Federal Government, Virginia and Maryland 
sent against him. Certainly, there must be great method in such 
madness. 

The fact, then, of his attacking slavery in its own stronghold, with 
so small a force, is all that can be regarded as furnishing any evidence 
of madness. 

That he was deceived by Mr. Cook, in relation to the readiness of 
the slave population in Virginia and Maryland to strike for freedom, 
lie stated to that gentleman in his last interview with him. But not 
for once did he repine at his fate ; not for once did he express regret for 
what he had done. 

So far from it, he used the following emphatic — may I not say 
prophetic? — language in a letter written to his old teacher, Rev. H. L. 
Vaill, of Connecticut : " Before I commeuced my work at Harper's 
Ferry, I felt assured that in the worst event it would certainly pay. I 
often expressed that belief, arid I can now see no possible reason to 
alter my mind." There are others who charge Mr. Brown with having 
acted in a spirit of revenge. A more groundless charge was never 
made. That slaveholders and their abettors should have expected 
vengeance at his hands, is not surprising, for he had suffered wrongs 
at the hands of the slave power which would have either crushed or 
driven to madness most men. One of his sons was seized upon and 
assassinated in Kansas in open day ; another, who was a member of 
the Legislature under the Topeka Constitution, was arrested at Ossa- 
wattamie on a charge of treason ; his feet and hands were bound 
together with an ox chain, and he was compelled to walk the whole 
distance to Lecompton, under a burning sun, the iron wearing the 
flesh from his ankles. His sufferings brought on a brain fever from 



8 Character and Death of 

which, in a few days he died; and one of his daughters was seized 
upon in the night time, dragged from her father's dwelli: g by Mis- 
sourian ruffians, and treated in a manner which would have disgraced 
the inhabitants of the Fegee Islands. But notwithstanding these and 
other barbarities of a like character, which he had suffered at the hands 
of slavery, not for once in all that sanguinary struggle at Harper's Ferry 
did he stoop to an act of vengeful cruelty. All his prisoners testify 
that he treated them with the utmost kindness, and that too, notwith- 
standing his own son was shot down while bearing a flag of truce, and 
young Thompson was inhumanly murdered by those who had taken 
him prisoner. No, my hearers, John Brown exhibited no spirit of 
cruelty or revenge in any of all his acts. In his charge to his men, 
before the attack, he said : " Remember that the lives of others are as 
precious to them as yours are to you." When the attack was made 
upon him by the marines, he spared the lives of Major Russell and 
Lieutenant Stewart when they were wholly in his power, for which 
the Major thanked him. Whatever may be said by those at the North 
who barter conscience and freedom for slaveholding favor, the South 
admit that he acted magnanimously and bravely towards his fallen foe. 
But I should fail alike to do justice to the dead and the cause to promote 
which he offered up his life if I should fail to notice, more particularly, 
the motives which actuated him in the work to which he devoted the 
last years of his life ; for in the light of those motives history will 
judge him. But before we can wisely judge his motives, we must 
inquire into the character of the system which he sought to over- 
throw. 

* What is slavery? Webster defines it as "a state of entire subjuga- 
tion of one person to the will of another." Our ears have become so 
familiar with the term that it excites but little emotion when we hear 
it pronounced. But, my hearers, if the dealer in the bodies and souls 
of men was to enter this house to - day, and, with sufficient force to 
accomplish his dark purpose, proceed to put the clanking chains upon 
your limbs, you would begin better to understand the import of the 
word " Slavery." And as the door of slavery's dark prison house 
should open to receive you, your trembling limbs, blanched cheeks and 
chattering teeth would proclaim you an abolitionist, whatever the indif- 
ference with which you might have been wont to look upon the woes 
of Southern slaves. Slavery is a system which curses both the master 
and the slave. It does more than this — in the end it no less certainly 
brings ruiD upon all who stand by and permit the strong to overpower 
and subjugate the weak, for whoever tamely consents to the enslave- 
ment of others, permits the forging of chains for his children's limbs 
by permitting the bulwarks which protect his own freedom to be over- 
thrown. It does even more than this — it so debauches the moral sense of 
such as look on with indifference as to fit them to become the willing 
slaves of slavery. Thus has it come to pass that our Northern States have 
become one vast Golgotha on which bleach the moral skeletons of 



John Broivn. 9 

those who once promised to honor our nation and bless humanity. I 
will not attempt to name those in church and state whom slavery has 
slain, for they are legions. Yet I cannot forbear referring to one of 
them. Like the one whose obsequies we to - day celebrate, he was a 
New England man, who, instead of seeking to liberate Southern slaves, 
forged heavy chains for Northern freemen, and " Let loose the hungry 
pack to hunt down freedom in her chosen land." He was a man 
whose large and lustrous eyes looked forth from underneath a brow 
towering and noble like the mountains of his native State. He was 
gifted by nature with such unequalled powers of thought that had he 
lived in the days of Greece or Rome he would have been assigned a 
place among the gods. But slavery led him (not into an exceeding 
high mountain, but) out upon a lovely plain, and showed him (not all 
the kingdoms of the world, but) all the glories of the — Presidency, 
and said, " All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and 
worship me," and he took the glory of his great name, the honor of 
his country, and the last hope of the fleeing bondman, and offering 
them as sacrifices, he bowed low and worshipped before slavery's bloody 
altar, and Freedom wept when Daniel Webster fell. 

'•So falFn, so lost, the light withdrawn 
Which once he wore, 
The glory from his gray hairs gone 
Foreverniore." 

Slavery conspires as much against the manhood of the master as of 
the slave, for no man can put fetters upon the limbs of his fellow man 
until he has first bowed his moral nature to the slavery of selfishness ; 
he must first mortgage his own soul to the Devil before he can either 
take or execute a bill of sale of his brother. 

Slavery blights every green thing in all the South; the mildew 
which it begets rests upon the roads, fields and houses, manufactories 
and post-offices, school -houses, literature and religion of the Southern 
states. All the great men ot the South twenty - five years ago looked 
upon slavery as an evil and a sin ; her ruling spirits now profess to 
defend it as a right — so fearfully has the moral sentiment of the South 
been debauched within a quarter of a century. 

Such are some of the bitter fruits which others besides the bondman 
have reaped from slavery. 

Well might Cowper exclaim : 

' L I would not have a slave to till my ground, 
To carry me — to fan me, when I sleep, 
And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth 
That sinews, bought or sold, have ever earned." 

The immediate victims of slavery are despoiled of every right. No 
pen, though dipped in blood, could draw a picture of their wrongs. 
First, they are compelled to labor for life, without wages. Second, 
they are denied education. Third, they cannot own their own children, 
neither can they protect them. A few weeks ago Mr. 1 Manuel, a 



10 Cliaracter and Death of 

colored man in Washington, was fined $200 for giving shelter to his 
own son, who was a slave and fleeing from bondage. On failing to pay 
his fine he was last week thrust into prison where he is at present. 
Fourth, they have no protection in the courts. Fifth, they mav not 
exercise the right of self- defense. Sixth, they are huddled together in 
a state of promiscuous concubinage. Seventh, if they attempt to 
escape from their dark prison - house, they are liable to be pursued by 
hounds, or to be shot down like beasts of prey. Eighth, they may at 
any time, as the caprice or self interests of the master demands, be 
handcuffed like felons, and driven fur from family and friends, never 
to return. 

What wonder, I ask, that Jefferson, in view of such dark and unmit- 
igated crimes against humanity, exclaimed, " I tremble for my country 
when I remember that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep 
forever." 

One fact more in relation to slavery demands our notice, ere we 
pass judgment upon the motives which must have actuated Mr. Brown 
in his war upon it, viz. : it is a system irreconcilably antagonistic to 
freedom, and will, if much longer permitted to exist anywhere in the 
United States, secure and exercise control everywhere. I might make 
an argument in proof of this position, drawn both from the nature of 
slavery, and from the history of its past aggressions. But I prefer to 
refer you to the testimony of others on this point. I could call for- 
ward many distinguished witnesses, but shall content myself with 
introducing but two : one from the South, the other from the North. 
The former of them a defender of slavery, the latter of freedom. 

The Richmoiid Enquirer (one ot the ablest, if not the ablest paper in 
all the South) holds the following language : " Two opposite and con- 
flicting forms of society cannot, among civilized men, co - exist and 
endure. The one must give way and cease to exist; the other becomes 
universal." 

Wm. H. Seward declared a short time since, " That the United States 
must and will, sooner or later, become either entirely a slaveholding , or 
entirely a free labor nation. Either the cotton and rice fields of South 
Carolina, and the sugar plantations of Louisiana, will ultimately be 
tilled by free labor, and Charleston and New Orleans become marts for 
legitimate merchandise, or else the rye fields and wheat fields of Mas- 
sachusetts and New York must again be rendered up by the farmers to 
slave culture, and Boston and New York become once more markets 
for trade in the bodies and souls of men" * 

Thus do you observe, my hearers, that slavery wars not only upon the 
most sacred interests of all classes, but that it is freedom's deadliest foe. 

And it was for seeking the speedy overthrow of this " sum of all 
villainies" that John Brown has been doomed to an ignominious death. 

* A similar prophetic declaration was found, in language no less emphatic, in & 
speech of Abraham Lincoln's delivered at a still earlier date. 



John Brown. 11 

Senator Broderick, of California, said as his dying words, " They 
have killed me because I was opposed to the extension of slavery." 
They have killed.John Brown because he was opposed to the existence 
of slavery. 

If " Oppression maketh a wise man mad," what wonder that the 
destruction of such a man under such circumstances should overwhelm 
with anguish the great - souled philanthropist of our State, Gerrit 
Smith? 

But who, I ask, died the most desirable, the most honorable death — 
Senator Broderick, who offered up his life in obedience to the demand 
of the " bloody code," or Mr. Brown, who offered up his life on the 
altar of humanity's freedom ? 

The light in which Mr. Brown regarded slavery may be judged not 
more by the sacrifices which he made to secure its overthrow, than by 
the outspoken testimony which he bore against it during his imprison- 
ment, and upon the scaffold. 

In the course of conversation between him and the Rev. Mr. Waugh, 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, held in his prison, the reverend 
gentleman spoke in defense of slavery, to which Mr. Brown replied, 
" You have not yet learned the A - B - C of Christianity ; you may be a 
gentleman, but you are not a Christian — you are a Heathen Gentleman." 

When interrogated in regard to his being attended by a clergyman 
upon the scaffold, he replied, " I wish for the prayers of no man who 
believes slavery right. If an old slave mother, with a dozen poor 
slave children might be permitted to follow me to the scaffold, it would 
be a gratification to me — I should rather have their sympathies and 
prayers than the prayers of all the pro - slavery ministers in the United 
States." 

He said of his two sons who fell by his side at Harper's Ferry, " I 
do not regret their loss ; they have died in a noble cause." 

We find, then, that, whether judged by the work in which he was 
engaged, by the manner and spirit in which he prosecuted it, or by his 
dying testimony, Mr. Brown was actuated by the purest and most 
exalted motives. 

But is it charged that*he violated law ? That he violated statute 
enactments, is true. And so did the Prophets ; so did the Apostles ; so 
did the Saviour of men. 

The successive steps which Hie human race have taken in the ever 
ascending pathway of progress and freedom, either in Church or State, 
have not been taken by virtue of legislative enactments. 

The true relormers of all ages have always been in advance of 
legislation, and the great acts of their lives have always been inde- 
pendent of, and often in opposition to, statute enactments. If John 
Brown was a law-breaker, then were Amram and Jockabed; so were 
Moses and Daniel ; so were Peter and John ; so were all the martyrs of 
all ages. 

If John Brown deserved death, then much more did Warren, 



22 Character and Death of 

Adams, Jefferson, Hancock and Washington, for they rebelled against 
the unjust taxation of the purse ; but John Brown rebelled against the 
" sum of all villainies." 

Thus vou observe, my hearers, that those who are law-abiding in the 
high and true sense of the term, are often compelled to be law-breakers 
in the low and vulgar sense in which the term is too often used. 

With much force has humanity's poet, J. G. Whittier, presented this 
truth in the following lines : 

" Eight, forever on the scaffold ; wrong, forever on the throne ; 
But the scaffold sways the fetters, and behind the dim unknown 
Standeth God beyond the shadows, keeping watch above His own." 

But did John Brown do right in seeking to aid the slave by force, in 
obtaining his freedom? is a question asked by ten thousand lips. The 
non-resistant answers, No. The man who believes in the authority of 
Mi^ht over Right answers, No. The man who believes that the enact- 
ments of wicked men are of higher obligation than the law of the 
Changeless and Holy God, answers, No. 

But those who believe in self-defense and the Golden Rule, answer, 
Yes, John Brown did right to take his life in his hands, and, entering 
the dark prison-houses of bondage, seek to break off the fetters of the 
slave, and " Let the oppressed go free " In so doing he performed an 
act of disinterested heroism, which challenges the admiration of all who 
can appreciate exalted virtue ; an act which shall secure for him an 
immortality of fame. 

And he has not to slumber long years in the grave before his work 
for freedom shall be appreciated. His noble deeds and heroic utter- 
ances have, by the aid of steam and telegraph, been borne to all parts 
of our land : and the public prints are speaking out boldly in reference 
to him. 

The New York Independent holds the following language in relation 
to him : " The brave old man who lies in prison at Charlestown, Vir- 
ginia, awaiting the day of his execution, is teaching this nation lessons 
of heroism, faith and duty, which will awaken its sluggish moral sense, 
and the almost forgotten memories of the heroes of the Revolution. * 

* * His brief address to the Virginia Court about to sentence 
him for unproved crimes, which at the worst were acts of devotion to 
freedom and humanity, will outlive that sentence, and in the opinion 
of mankind make Brown the Judge and the Court the criminal. 

* * Calm, self-consistent, courteous towards his accusers and his 
judge, benignant in feelirig towards all men, mild and patient under 
personal injuries ; yet inflexibly committed to the cause of human free- 
dom; undaunted by the presence of death ; despising every subterfuge 
and expedient for his own deliverance; conscious of the purity of his 
motives and the essential Tightness of his object ; faithful in God as his 
trust, he stands not only a brave man in a community of cowards, but 
a moral hero and prophet, in a nation of ' Sophists, economists and cal- 
culators.' " 



John Brown. 13 

I was pleased to observe that he is spoken of in theJast issue of the 
Republican, of our own village, as being " As noble-hearted a Christian 
as ever suffered martyrdom." 

I could multiply, almost indefinitely, quotations of a like character, 
from the most influential public journals of the land ; but I forbear, and 
pass to the consideration of another question, viz.: "Was it wise for 
John Brown to attack slavery when and where he did ? 

A majority of the American people have answered No. 

John Brown has answered Yes, and sealed his testimony with his 
blood. Who shall decide between the witnesses ? 

Remember, my hearers, that what was the folly of yesterday, shall 
be crowned as the wisdom of to-morrow. 

Those acts which have been considered as unwise and rash, when put 
forth, have often proved to be golden links in the chain with which God 
was binding earth to heaven. 

Christianity and freedom would have had no martyrs if only the wis- 
dom of the majority had been consulted. Even the Lord Jesus Christ 
might have avoided the ignominious death which he suffered if he had 
only acted wisely as the majority judged. 

Whoever recognizes the presence of God, in the affairs of men and 
nations, should pause long before pronouncing the act for which Mr. 
Brown was sentenced to death as unwise. 

It seemed unwise that Paul appealed from Festus to Caesar, since he 
would have been set at liberty if he had not ; but by virtue of that 
appeal the standard of the cross was planted in the very heart of the 
Roman Empire, and Caesar's own household was brought under the 
influence of the Gospel. It seemed unwise and rash in Crispus Attucks, 
a colored man, to attack the British soldiery in Boston ; yet Daniel 
Webster said that from the day of the Boston massacre dated the dis- 
ruption of the British Empire. If the attack of a colored man on the 
English soldiery at Boston resulted in the overthrow of British rule in 
America, why, I ask, may not the attack of a white man on the slave- 
holders at Harper's Ferry result in the overthrow of slavery in the 
United States. 

I confidently believe that the revelation of the future will prove that 
John Brown was a chosen instrument in the hands of God to accom- 
plish the speedy overthrow of slavery in America. 

But much has already been accomplished by the heroic deeds of the 
brave old man ; he has torn off the covering with which slavery had 
veiled itself, and exposed to view its weakness and hideous deformity. 
Its weakness is seen in the fact that twenty -two men have sent a thrill 
of terror through all the South. 

Governor Wise admits that " Henceforth no slaves can be retained in 
bondage in the border counties unless they are disposed to stay." 

When the wounded old man arose from his bed, and gave his reasons 
why the sentence of death should not be pronounced against him, his 
simple, truthful words inspired such fear in the heart of the officer in 



XJj. Character and Death of 

command, that he at once gave orders that the force on guard should 
be increased. 

The following from the Richmond Enquirer is an undisguised acknowl- 
edgment of the inability of slavery to defend itself : 

" What have the Governors of Pennsylvania and Ohio done to pro- 
tect a sister State from the lawlessness of their own people ? And what 
has the President of the United States done to protect a sovereign 
State from lawless invasion ? Nothing. We have been left to our own 
resources just as though Ohio and Pennsylvania were hostile States, 
and no confederation existed." 

The paper which puts forth this cry for help, is edited by a son of 
Governor Wise. 

Another Southern paper, the Wheeling (Va.) Intelligencer, holds the 
following language relative to the stability and safety of slaveholding 
society : 

" Scarcely less secure are those people who work by day and sleep by 
night underneath the craters of Vesuvius and iEtna, and who are liable 
to an eruption at any moment of burning lava, than many communities 
of the Southern States where the slaves number two or three to one of 
the whites. Jefferson, up to the time of his dying hour, never ceased 
to express his apprehension of a great San Domingo rebellion." 

Such are some of the acknowledgments of weakness which the late 
attack upon slavery has drawn forth from the South. 

I said that the horrid deformity of slavery had also been exposed by 
the occurrences at Harper's Ferry. It has revealed its jealousy, its cow- 
ardice, and its barbarity. In speaking of these three characteristics of 
oppression, I shall hardly be able to tell you where jealousy ends and 
cowardice begins, or where cowardice ends and barbarity begins ; for 
they are three grim - visaged monsters of the pit ; so at one in spirit and 
purpose that they form a bloody, soulless trinity, in fellowship with 
which no generous impulse can live, no seed of sympathy grow. 

Such incidents as the following very forcibly reveal the jealousy and 
cowardice of slavery : 

A citizen of Virginia is heard to speak of Mr. Brown as an honest 
man. He has to flee or be imprisoned. 

Two Cincinnati merchants, when riding in the cars, are heard to 
express sympathy with Mr. Brown and his family. They are at once 
seized upon, dragged from the cars, and thrust into prison at Harper's 
Ferry. 

A part of a letter is picked up in the highway, on which is neither 
name or date ; but on it is found written the simple sentence, " We can 
accomplish our work in six hours." The handwriting upon the wall 
of Belshazzar's banquet hall inspired not more terror than these omi- 
nous words. The whole community is astir, and guards are stationed 
in all directions. 

A wheat stack is found to be on fire : " The wildest terror prevails, 
and thousands of men are at once put under arms." 



John Brown. 15 

On the day of execution, Governor Wise, fearing that Mr. Brown 
might say something that would endanger the stability of slavery, 
orders that the soldiers be so posted that neither they nor any of the 
people should be able to hear anything that might be said from the 
scaffold. 

Pity Governor Wise had not lived in the days of Pilate ; he would 
have managed the crucifixion better than Pilate did, for he would have 
protected society from the spread of the heretical and dangerous doc- 
trines taught by the Saviour, by permitting none to approach near 
enough the cross to hear Him. 

In the light of such revelations of the jealousy and cowardice of 
slavery, we wonder not that John Randolph said that "The fire -bell 
never rings at night in Richmond, but that the mother clasps her infant 
closer to her breast in fear of an insurrection." 

But the revelation which has been made of the barbarity of slavery 
is the most appalling. It has proved to be more relentless than the 
ferocity of the savage. 

Many years ago, when Indian chiefs ruled in Virginia, instead of 
Governor Wise, a gallant captain by the name of John Smith — instead 
of John Brown — was tried before a council of chiefs, and sentenced to 
death. When the hour of execution came, he was led forth amid the 
war-whoops of the exultant savages, and his head laid upon the stone. 
The war -club — the instrument of death — was raised; but ere it 
descended, an Indian girl rushed between the executioner and his vic- 
tim and, bending over the prostrate captive, she folded his head in her 
arms, and pleaded for his life. Her prayer was granted, and Smith was 
released and conducted in safety to his home. 

Such was Virginia chivalry and magnanimity two hundred and fifty 
years ago, under Indian rule. Let us compare with it the deeds of 
Virginians of to -day, under slaveholding rule. 

A young man by the name of Thompson was taken prisoner at 
Harper's Ferry. He was wholly in the power of his captors. There 
was no possibility of his escape ; yet it appeared from the testimony of 
Mr. Hunter, son of the prosecuting attorney, that he in company with 
others entered the room where Thompson was confined, and, putting 
the muzzle of his gun near to his head, sought to take his life ; on see- 
ing which, a young lady (Miss Foulk) sprang forward, turned aside the 
weapon of death, and, folding the prisoner's head in her arms, as Poca- 
hontas did Captain Smith's in hers, she pleaded that his life should be 
spared until he had been tried. Where is now the chivalry, where the 
mercy which dwelt in the bosom of the savage in the days of Powhat- 
tan ? Gone, quite gone ! Eaten out by the barbarism of slavery. She 
was rudely thrust aside, the prisoner seized upon, dragged from the 
room, and ruthlessly murdered in the public street! 

Mr. Brown said to Colonel Stewart, in reference to the treatment 
which he received after his surrender : " These wounds were inflicted 
upon me — both sabre- cuts on my head and bayonet stabs in various 



26 Character and Death of 

parts of my body — some minutes after I Lad ceased fighting, and con- 
sented to surrender for the benefit of others, not for my own." 

And then the manner in which his trial was conducted — what 
American does not blush in remembrance of it. He is brought into 
court ere he can stand or sit ; he asks a little time that he may recover 
his memory and hearing, both of which he had nearly lost by reason 
of the loss of blood and inflammation resulting from the sabre - cuts on 
his head ; but he asks in vain. He then asks a single day's delay, that 
he may procure counsel in which he can confide. This, also, is denied 
him ; and he is put on trial for his life while lying on his couch cov- 
ered with ghastly wounds ! Surely " The tender mercies of the wicked 
are cruel." How has the glory of Virginia departed ! Her Governor 
has doomed to death Columbia's noblest son. 

. Pilate was an honorable man compared with Governor Wise, for he 
washed his hands after dooming to death one of whom he said, " I find 
no fault with this man." But Governor Wise, after delivering up to 
death one whom he admitted to be " The bravest and most truthful man 
he ever saw," instead of washing his hands, glories in his shame. Who 
would desire the immortality in store for Henry A. Wise ? 

But we commenced to speak of the disgrace into which Virginia had 
fallen. She has proved herself destitute alike of justice, courage and 
magnanimity. She should at once change and amplify the design upon 
her seal of State. It now represents a defender of liberty, with his foot 
upon the neck of a prostrate despot, by the side of whom are scattered 
broken fetters and chains, and her motto is "Sic Semper Tyrannis" 
(" Thus be it ever done to tyrants.") She should cut down with the 
sabre and pierce with the bayonet the John Brown who now stands 
upon the neck of tyranny, and lifting up the fallen despot, plant his 
iron heel in the vitals of prostrate liberty. By his side should stand 
the auction block, on which should be arranged a family of slaves, 
wearing on their limbs the mended manacles and chains. In the back- 
ground should stand the gallows on which should be suspended the 
body of John Brown, and over it should be inscribed, " Thus be it ever 
done to the truthful and the brave." Such a design would be truthful 
to the life. 

As we mourn over Virginia's degradation and shame, let us not for- 
get that she is still great in the names of her illustrious dead. But let 
us 

" Pay the reverence of old days to her dead fame ; 
Walk backwards with averted gaze and hide her shame." 

But I must pass to notice other and more interesting revelations, 
which have been made by the last acts and closing scenes of the life of 
him whom we mourn to-day. The simplicity which ran like a golden 
thread through all his acts and communications was not studied or 
assumed. It was my pleasure to meet and spend some hours with him 
in February, 1858, and if now asked what trait of character most deeply 
impressed me, I should answer, simplicity, combined with force. 



John Brown. 17 

Many have spoken of Mr. Brown's effort in behalf of the slaves as a 
failure. How little such persons know of the struggle of the right 
with the wrong, of truth with error, in the history of the past. They 
overlook the important fact that more often depends upon the power 
of one brave spirit to inspire courage and enthusiasm in the hearts of 
others, and carry terror into the ranks of the foe, than to victory gained 
in one or in a succession of battles. 

Captain Lawrence was overpowered, and the Chesapeake taken by 
the Shannon. Was it unfortunate, therefore, that the Chesapeake 
sailed forth and attacked the Shannon ? Did Captain Lawrence fail 
because he lost this battle and his life also? Far from it; for what, I 
ask, gave to Commodore Perry his victory on Lake Erie, the proudest 
achievement recorded in our naval history '? I answer, the flag under 
which he fought. And what, I ask again, gave to the banner under 
which he fought its magic power to inspire the soldiery with indomi- 
table courage, and irrepressible enthusiasm ? 'T was the words of the 
dying Lawrence, "Do n't give up the ship/" So well did Commodore 
Perry understand that victory, if gained at all, must be gained in the 
name of the heroic Lawrence, that when the flag -ship was disabled, he 
carried the flag in an open boat to the Niagara, and when there was 
again seen floating in the breeze, the inspiring words of Lawrence, 
"Do n't give up the ship ! " the Commodore knew from the shouts which 
rent the air that the day was won. Even so shall the brave deeds and 
heroic words of the martyred Brown give victory to the hosts of free- 
dom in their battles with slavery at no very distant day. Well did the 
Independent say, " The day of John Brown's execution will be a sorry 
day for Virginia. Her Governor will see the ghost of Banquo in the 
council room, and in his very bed - chamber. Troops of imaginary 
terrors will scare sleep from the eyes of her slaveholders, and the blood 
of the hero will sow her soil with quick and direful retribution." The 
Utica Herald has said, " The negro's shout at Harper's Ferry, ' That he 
had been in bondage long enough,' will echo in many a slave cabin, 
down even to the Red River and the Gulf, and it will be long before 
the sleep of the slaveholder becomes again as profound and secure as 
before this outbreak." 

A Southern correspondent of the Tribune remarks, " That the effect 
of the present excitement in the South upon the negro population will 
be injurious in the extreme." It will indeed, if it is injurious for the 
poor battered slave to know that he has friends who arc willing to die 
for him, and to know that liberty is worth more than life. 

The name of John Brown, my hearers, shall inspire hope and cour- 
age in the heart of many a weary bondman. It shall be the last word 
that the outraged slave will speak in the ear of his frantic wife, as she 
is torn from his arms to be borne away to the harem of some lordly 
master. Aye, his name shall be breathed in softest accents by the 
weeping slave -mother, into the ear of her darling child, when she 
clasps it to her bosom for the last time, before it is placed upon the 



28 Character arid Death of 

auction block and sold from her sight forever. Yes, John Brown shall, 
in a very important sense, yet prove a Messiah to the African race. 

Much more has been accomplished than I have yet named ; the 
Northern heart has been revealed, and with here and there an excep- 
tion, it beats true to freedom. The South begins to see that she cannot 
much longer depend upon the North to supply her with hounds to keep 
guard about the citadel of slavery, and hunt clown and drag back the 
fleeing bondman. It is seen that there are those at the North who are 
prepared to act against slavery, as well as to talk against it. This single 
fact will accomplish wonders for freedom. Political men have been 
greatly surprised at the spontaneous and almost universal sympathy 
expressed at the North for Mr. Brown. But these leaders have fallen 
behind the times in which they live, as King Charles the First fell 
behind the times in which he lived. 

I would here remark that whoever would in the future accomplish 
anything for freedom, must marshal her hosts, not in the low marshes 
of expediency, wherever rise the miasm of selfishness, and where 
always blow the simoom from the rice - swamps of the South ; but on 
the high table - lands of justice and truth, where always shines the sun 
of liberty, and ever blow the soul - invigorating breezes of freedom 
from our Northern hill -tops. 

Surely, John Brown's battle with Slavery has not proved a failure, 
although, like other martyrs, he has fallen, ere victory perched upon 

his banner. 

" His love of truth — too warm — too strong, 
For Hope or Fear to chain or chill; 
His hate of Tyranny or Wrong, 
Burn in the hearts he kindled still." 

Governor "Wise, on being asked a few days previous to the execution 
if he would pardon Brown, replied, " No, I will not," adding, " Why, 
John Brown has never asked to be pardoned." No, he preferred to 
die, bearing faithful testimony against oppression, to accepting life at 
the hands of the oppressor. To ask for freedom at the hands of such a 
man, would be to ask an impossibility ; for how, I ask, could Governor 
Wise give freedom? — a man who stands with his iron heel upon the 
throbbing, bleeding heart of prostrate humanity. To assume the atti- 
tude of a suppliant at the feet of such a man, would be to offer up the 
undying soul as a sacrifice to slavery, to redeem the dying body from 
the gallows. Rather than ask for life of such an one, he preferred that 
his faithful wife, who had wept the loss of four noble sons, cloven down 
by the bloody hand of slavery, should robe herself in the habiliments 
of yet deeper mourning, as she should walk the descending pathway of 
her lonely life. 

John Brown has reproduced before the world that grand and sub- 
lime type of moral heroism which dignifies humanity, and inspires 
anew in the heart of man his faith in God and Truth. He has done 
more to lift humanity up toward God than any other man of this age. 



John Brown. 19 

While defending the position which he had assumed at Harper's Ferry, 
one of his sons was shot down hy his side and another one fell, but. linger- 
ing in agony, he asked his comrades to complete the work of death and 
end his sufferings. As they severally declined, he took his pistol from 
his belt, and was about to take his own life ; seeing which the father 
reached forth and, staying his hand, said, "Not yet, my son ; wait a lit- 
tle longer, and you shall die as becomes a man." 

When Gov. Wise paid him his first visit in prison, he said to him 
in that severe, vulgar manner, peculiar to the slaveholder in his inter- 
course with those in his power, "Well, old man, you had better pre- 
pare to die." To which Mr. Brown replied in a gentle, respectful 
voice, "I hope I am prepared for death ; and now you will doubtless 
permit me to suggest that it is only a question of time with us all ; and 
it is not probable that you will live to exceed fifteen years ; you may 
live but a small part of that time. I submit whether it is not import- 
ant that you, by a timely repentance of your sins, should prepare for 
that event." 

Behold him as he stands up in court, the representative of universal 
man, and hear him as he pleads for the outcast and the dumb. When 
asked if he had anything to say why sentenee of death should not be 
pronounced upon him, he replies, " Had I so interfered in behalf 
of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in 
behalf of any of their friends, either father, mother, brother, sister, 
wife or children, or any of that class, and suffered and sacrificed what I 
have in this interference, it would have been all right. Every man in 
court would have declared it an act worthy of reward, rather than of pun- 
ishment. This court acknowledge, too, as I suppose, the validity of the 
law of God. I see a book kissed which I suppose to be the Bible, or, at 
least, the New Testament, which teaches me that, all ' things whatso- 
ever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so to them.' It 
teaches me further, to 'remember them that are in bonds as being bound 
with them.' I endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say I am 
yet too young to learn that God is any respecter of persons. I believe 
that to interfere as I have done, in behalf of his despised poor, is no 
wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit 
my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood 
further with the blood of my children, and with the blood of millions 
in this slave country, whose rights are disregarded by unkind, unjust 
and cruel enactments, I say let it be done." 

Search the biographies of the brave and great of any age in the 
world's history, and you shall not find sublimer utterances. 

But did he maintain his self-possession, his integrity, his love of man, 
and his faith in Truth and God, during the long days of his imprison- 
ment, which intervened between the sentence and his execution ? 
Read any of his numerous letters written to his friends, when under 
sentence of death, and you shall find that they all breathe the same spirit 
of lofty devotion to the right, the same cheerful resignation to the will 



20 Character and Death of 

of bis Divine Master, added to which is the bright and joyous hope of 
a glorious immortality beyond the grave. 

In writing to his old teacher, Rev. H. L. Vaill, of Connecticut, he 
says : " I wish I could write you about a few only ot the interesting 
times I have experienced with different classes of men, clergymen 
among others. Christ, the great Captain of Liberty as well as of Sal- 
vation, and who began His mission as foretold of Him, by proclaiming it, 
saw fit to take from me a sword of steel, after I bad carried it for a 
time ; but He has put another in my hand, ' the sword of the spirit,' 
and I pray God to make me a faithful soldier wherever He may send 
me, not less on the scaffold than when surrounded by my warmest sym- 
pathizers." In another part of the same letter he says, " Notwithstand- 
ing ' my soul is among lions,' yet I believe that ' God in very deed is 
with me.' You will not, therefore, feel surprised when I tell you that 
I am 'joyful in my tribulations;' that I do not feel condemned of 
Him, whose judgment is just, nor of my own conscience. Nor do I 
feel degraded by my imprisonment, my chains, nor the prospect of the 
gallows. I have not only been (though utterly unworthy) permitted 
to ' suffer affliction with God's people,' but have, also had a great 
many rare opportunities for ' preaching righteousness in the great 
congregation.' I trust it will not be all lost." Again he says, " I have 
passed under the rod of Him whom I call my Father (and certainly no 
son ever needed it oftener), and yet I have enjoyed much of life, as I 
was enabled to discover the secret of this somewhat early. It has been 
in making the prosperity and happiness of others my own ; so that I 
have really had a good deal of prosperity. I am very prosperous still, 
and am looking forward to the time when 'peace on earth and good 
will to men ' shall everywhere prevail. I have no murmuring thoughts 
or anxious feeling to fret my mind. 'I'll praise my Maker with my 
breath.' " 

To a young friend in New York, he wrote, " I do not feel myself in 
the least degraded by my imprisonment, or chains, or in prospect 
of the gallows. Man cannot imprison, or chain, or hang the soul. 
I go joyfully in behalf of millions who ' have no rights ' that this great 
and glorious this Christian Republic ' are bound to respect.' " 

Can it be, my hearers, that such a man, one who could thus speak, 
write and triumph, with the gallows in full view, is dead ? Tis even 
so. He has been slain that hoary-lieaded wrong and bloody despotism 
might live. And ten days ago, his noble, faithful wife, waited and wept 
at Charlestown until the dark deed of murder was consummated in the 
name of American laic, and then receiving his mangled corpse, she bore 
it tenderly to her desolate, O, how desolate home ! 

I quote from the New York Independent so much ol its report of Mr. 
Brown's interview with his wife and of his execution as seems desir- 
able on the present occasion : 

" Before Mrs. Brown was admitted to her husband, General Talia- 
ferro asked Mr. Brown 'How Ions; he desired the interview to last,' to 



John Broivn. 'Jl 

which the old man replied, ' Not long, sir, three or four hours will be 
long enough.' 

4 1 am very sorry,' said the officer, 'not to oblige you, but Mrs. 
Brown must return to Harper's Ferry to-night ; still, I will allow her 
to remain as long as possible.' 

4 Execute your orders, sir,' said Captain Brown, composedly ; ' I have 
no favor to ask of the State of Virginia.' 

As the interview was in presence of the jailer, Mrs. Brown, with 
a woman's delicacy, began speaking in a low voice, so as not to be 
overheard. The old Captain, with a smile, said, ' Speak loud ! Mary , 
speak loud ! ' 

When for a few moments she yielded to her feelings and sobbed con- 
vulsively, he laid his hand upon her gently, saying with great kindness 
in his tone and marvelous composure in his manner, ' Cheer up, Mary, 
cheer up ! ' 

In referring to the expected event of the next day, he said he looked 
forward to it with great calmue&s. He was prepared to submit to his 
fate without a murmur. He had the comforting consciousness that 
he would die for the right, and this to him took away all terror from 
death. 

At this point General Taliaferro announced that the interview must 
close, and Mrs. Brown immediately prepared to return to Harper's 
Ferry. The old man exclaimed as she went out, ' God bless you and 
your children ; ' to which she replied, ' God have mercy on you,' and 
so the husband and the wile parted, never more to meet in this world. 

On the entrance of General Taliaferro to announce to the prisoner 
when he should prepare for execution, Captain Brown looked up from 
his pen and ink, and asked, ' What is to be the hour, General V ' 
' Eleven o'clock,' was the reply. ' Well, I will try and finish in time,' 
said the old man coolly, and returned to spend the last few moments at 
his writing. 

At eleven o'clock Captain Brown was led out of his cell by Sheriff 
Campbell and Captain Avis, with their assistants. He was conducted 
to the cells of the other prisoners that he might have a moment's inter- 
view with each before his death. He first met Copeland and Green, to 
whom he. said, ' Stand up like men, and do not betray your friends. 

The prisoner was then taken to Stephens' cell. The two fellow- 
prisoners kindly exchanged greetings. Stephens said, ' Good by, Cap- 
tain, I know you are going to a better land.' Brown replied, ' I know 
I am.' 

Captain Brown told the Sheriff that he was ready. He was led to 
the door, and received by his military escort. He had on his head a 
dark felt hat, and was dressed in the same clothes which he had worn 
in prison. On his feet he wore a pair of red slippers. He was assisted 
into a furniture wagon, where he quietly took a seat on the box which 
contained his coffin. The wagon was drawn by two white horses. 
2 



22 Character and Death of 

While riding along toward the scaffold, Mr. Sadler, the undertaker, 
remarked, ' Captain Brown, you are a cheerful man — more cheerful 
than I am to-day.' ' Yes,' replied the Captain, ' I have great reason to 
be cheerful.' Then, casting his eye over the field and the great dis- 
play of preparations, he said, ' I see that all persons are excluded from 
the field except the military ; I am sorry that the citizens are shut out.' 
On entering further into the field, as the wide landscape began to open 
before him, he rose to his feet, and straightening himself to his full 
height, he exclaimed, ' This is a beautiful country ; I have never seen 
it before ! ' 

He ascended the stairs, and advanced with a quick and elastic tread, 
showing that his courage only grew greater as the end drew near. 
What man of those five thousand witnesses, in the uniform of soldiers, 
was half so brave as John Brown V He threw off his felt hat grace 
fully, and ran his hand through his gray hair. He cast a glance about 
him, principally in the direction of the people in the distance. Then, 
turning to his jailer, he remarked, ' Sir, I have no words to thank you 
for your kindness.' This was his grateful farewell to a man who had 
treated him from the beginning of his imprisonment to the end, with 
great courtesy and friendliness. 

No clergyman attended him in his last hours. He would accept no 
religious rites from men who defended slavery as a divine institution. 
As no anti-slavery minister was to be found in the neighborhood, he 
preferred to have none at all. 

His elbows and and ankles were then pinioned, the rope — a slender 
tarred hemp cord — was adjusted around his neck ; and the white cowl 
drawn over his head. The Sheriff requested him to step forward on 
the trap. ' I cannot see,' he replied, ' you must lead me.' He was 
accordingly led a few steps forward. The prisoner was now subjected 
to ten minutes' suspense, in this attitude on ihe gallows, in order that 
a military display might be made to gratify the Virginian troops ! 
The soldiers marched, counter-marched, and took position as if in face 
of an imaginary enemy — the prisoner, meanwhile standing bound, 
blinded, and on the edge of death ! Captain Avis asked, ' Are you 
tired ? ' To which the undaunted old man replied from underneath his 
linen shroud, ' No, not tired ; but don't keep me waiting longer than 
is necessary.' The Sheriff' asked him if he would hold a handkerchief 
in his hand to drop as a signal when he was ready. He replied, ; No, 
I do not want it ; but do not detain me longer than is absolutely 
necessary.' 

His example of courage and faith is almost without a parallel. His 
letters, his conversation, and his personal demeanor, bear witness to a 
moral character so high and grand that common men, compared with 
him in respect to all noble and moral qualities, seem scarcely more 
than children. No man has ever produced upon this nation so pro- 
found an impression for moral heroism. He made this impression at 
the first, but every act he performed, and every word he uttered until 



John Brown. cj>% 

the day of his execution, only confirmed and increased the power of 
his example. He grew greater and greater unto the end. He was 
greatest at the last, when most men would have been weakest." 

Forcibly, indeed do the circumstances of his execution recall the 
death of the Marquis of Montrose, whose martyrdom on the scaffold 
has been celebrated in Aytoun's " Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers : " 

They brought him to the Watergate, 

Hard bound with hempen span, 
As though they held a lion there, 

And not a fenceless man. 
They sat him high upon a cart— 

The hangman rode below — 
They drew his hands behind his back, 

And bared his noble brow 

It would have made a brave man's heart 

Grow sick and sad that day, 
To watch the keen, malignant eyes 

Bent down on that array. 

***** 

* * * 

" He is coming! he is coming! " — 
Like a bridegroom from his room 

Came the hero from his prison 
To the scaflbld and the doom. 

There was glory on his forehead, 
There was lustre in his eye, 

And he never walked to battle 
More proudly than to die ; 

There was color in his visage, 
Though the cheeks of all were wan, 

And they marveled as they saw him pass- 
That great and goodly man ! 

But when he came, though pinioned fast, 

He looked so great and high, 
So noble was his manly front, 

So calm his steadfast eye— 
The rabble rout forbore to shout, 

And each man held his breath, 
For well they knew the hero's soul 

Was face to face with death. 
And then a mournful shudder 

Through all the people crept, 
And some that came to scoff at him. 

Now turned aside and wept. 
But he looked upon the heavens, 

And they were clear and blue, 
And in the liquid ether 

The eye of God shone through ' 

He mounted up the scaflbld. 

And turned him to the crowd; 
But (hey dared not trust the people, 

So he might not si>eak aloud. 



%]f, John Brown. 

The grim Geneva ministers 

With anxious scowl drew near. 
As you have seen the ravens flock 

Around the dying deer. 
He would not deign them word nor sign, 

But alone he bent the knee; 
And veiled his face for Christ's dear grace 

Beneath the gallows-tree. 
***** * * 

A beam of light fell o'er him 

Like a glory round the shriven, 
And he climbed the lofty ladder 

As it were the path to heaven. 

The once noble form of the departed hero and Christian patriot 
sleeps sweetly in the silent tomb. But his soul has gone to that land 
where the bondman is free from the master, and where the voice of 
lamentation gives place to the song of praise. Aye, he has gone where 
the outgoing of his great and loving heart brings not peril, but 
increased joy ; where every generous and loving impulse finds a 
response in the bosom of all who tread with him the fields of ever- 
lasting life and immortal beauty. 

Let us rejoice, not only " That man cannot imprison, or chain or 
hang the soul," but that he cannot blot from the record of history the 
testimony of the brave and good against wrong ; for then would the 
death of John Brown be an irreparable loss to humanity. But now 
shall his speech before the court, his letters written in prison, and the 
record of his heroic, his sublime death, be handed down as a choice 
legacy to our children. 

He shall indeed be "A favorite of history." Aye, more — poets shall 
perform pilgrimages to the place of his tragic death, to catch the inspi- 
ration which breathes anew on the banks of the Potomac, that they 
may tune to sweeter, loftier strains the Lyre of Liberty. 

But we may not on the present occasion longer hold converse with 
freedom's chosen martyr. But ere we bid him adieu, let us, in the 
presence of the Great and Impartial Father of all, breathe the solemn 
vow, that whatever may betide us, we will " Remember those in bonds 
as bound with them ; " remembering that — 

" Whether on the scaffold high, 
Or in the battle's van, 
The fittest place for man to die, 
Is where he dies for man." 



HUMBOLDT COLLEGE. 



This Institution, located at Springvale, Iowa, was founded in 1869, 
and has now (in 1873), in buildings and endowments, over $100,000. 

Its character is set forth in the following extracts from the articles of 
incorporation. 

" We, whose names are hereto subscribed, recognizing the Father- 
hood of God and the Brotherhood of Man, associate ourselves for the 
purpose of encouraging liberal Education by the establishment and 
maintenance at Springvale, Humboldt County, Iowa, of an Institution 
for the education of youth in Literature, Science, and enlightened 
Christian Morality, without regard to sex, race, or religious sect. 

The fundamental object of this Association is to establish and main 
tain an educational Institution which shall be forever free from sec- 
tarian control, and no change shall ever be made in its character in 
this respect without the expressed consent of all its donors and the 
return to all contributors, their heirs, executors, or assigns, who shall 
request the same, of all funds by them contributed, together with legal 
interest on the same." 

OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION. 

President — Stephen H. Taft. Vice-President — Ira L. Welch. 

Treasurer — John Dickey. Secretary — J. N. Prouty. 

BOARD OF TRUSTEES. 

C.C.Cole, J.M.Snyder, Ira L. Welch, 

B. F. Gue, J. F. Duncombe, William Emerson, 

John Scott, John Dickey, William Ingham, 

Mary N. Adams, Cynthia Wickes, Jane S. Lathrop, 

Robert L. Collier, N. S. Ames, Frederick Douglass. 

Charles H. Brigham, J. N. Prouty, D. L. Willie, 

Austin Adams, J. C. Bills, N. Seaver. 

Of this Institution the Rev. Dr. Morrison, of Boston, who by 
appointment, visited Iowa in 1871 to investigate and report upon its 
character and claims, says : 

" The conclusions to which I have come in regard to Humboldt 
College are these : 

The people who have the enterprise in hand are honest, competent, 
and thoroughly in earnest, and will carry it on wisely and economically 
if the necessary funds are provided. 

The location which they have chosen is peculiarly favorable to such 
an enterprise. An unsectarian college established there, and liberally 
endowed, will for centuries have a great and important influence 
through that whole region of almost boundless fertility." 

" I feel a deep interest in Humboldt College, believing that it sus- 
tains an important relation to the political, moral, and religious wel- 
fare of a large section of our common country." — Wendell Phillips. 

" I thoroughly endorse the educational enterprise represented by my 
friend, the Rev. S. H. Taft," — Rev. Edward Everett Hale. 

A beautiful stone building costing $40,000 is nearly completed, the 



corner stone of which was laid in the Autumn of 1870, the principal 
address on the occasion being delivered by Chief Justice Cole. 
The following is the introductory address of Rev. Mr. Taft: 
"Friends of Education, the highest hoi or of which I have ever 
been made the recipient was the assurance of the Divine favor bv 
which I was permitted to call God my Heavenly Father, and know 
myself as an accepted child of His. Next to this was the honor of know- 
ing that God heard and answered my prayer when in deep solicitude 
I besought His blessing upon my efforts to found Humboldt College. 
God answered my prayer by giving me the confidence, sympathy, and 
aid of noble men and women in the East, without which the scenes 
and facts of to - day could never have cheered our hearts. I accept 
also as a distinguished honor, the position assigned me in the deeply 
interesting exercises of this day. It is an honor to iay the corner 
stone of an institution bearing the immortal name of Humboldt — an 
institution which is not only to live through coming years, but to 
gather increasing strength and beauty from each succeeding age. But 
the chief honor which crowns this hour arises from the fact that Hum- 
boldt College is to be an unsectarian and truly Christian institution, 
practically recognizing at its birth the Fatherhood of God and the 
Brotherhood of Man, by recognizing the sacred rights and obligations 
of all, without distinction of religious sect, race or sex. And such is 
the faith of its founders in the purity, sublimity and power of Chris- 
tianity, that they ask no legislation for its protection, either from 
State, Church or School. While religious forms and beliefs may 
change, and ought by reason of increasing light and enlarged expe- 
rience to change, Humboldt College will teach that the center of 
Christian life — its said (the care and love ot God for man, as compre- 
hensively expressed in the life and death of Christ, and the duty and 
privilege ot man to love, obey and trust in God, as taught by Christ), 
will remain changeless through all changes and glorious through all 
time. 

We see before us to - day the walls of a single edifice in the midst of 
grounds surpassingly beautiful, yet without ornamentation. In the 
distant years I see numerous buildings, in the midst of flowers, foun- 
tains and stately trees. In that day Humboldt College shall be known 
as one of the leading institutions of the world. Hundreds are here 
present to - day. Tens of thousands shall gather here a hundred years 
hence, to commemorate the birth of the Institution, and rejoice in the 
blessings it shall have conferred. From successive generations shall 
come to this temple of learning young men and women to seek and 
obtain that physical, mental, scholastic and moral training which slmll 
prepare them for usefulness and happiness here, and a glorious immor- 
tality in the future life. But I will not longer trespass upon the time 
that belongs to the distinguished gentleman who is to address us on 
this occasion, but will proceed to the pleasant duty of laying the corner 
stone, after which we shall have the privilege of listening to the Hon. 
C. C. Cole, Chief Justice of Iowa." 



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